I want to get somebodys attention, so thats been our desire every time weve been up there, to try to make an impact on the fans and give them something theyll remember, and maybe theyll go home on a Friday night or a Saturday night and say, ‘Maybe I ought to get up and go to church in the morning,’” Nelms said.

As usual, evangelism is the excuse. It’s not a very good one. As a friend pointed out, the parts of the crowd we saw, few members of which were likely to come from liturgical churches, seemed uncomfortablethe camera showed a lot of sheepish smilesthough the line about his wife did get a small roar from part of the crowd.

The main effect of such shenanigans isn’t to make people think “He prays for Toyotas and Goodyear tires and his smokin’ hot wife, so I’m going to church.” It’s to make religion look trivial and cute and a kind of optional adjunct to real life, and not nearly so serious as, say, NASCAR racing.